It shouldn’t come as any surprise to our regular listeners that the official position of the Australian Democrats is to support the Voice to Parliament. Part of the policy platform we took to the 2022 federal election on standing with First Nations people was whole hearted support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Since the Albanese government has chosen to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, starting with a Voice to Parliament enshrined in the Constitution, our National Executive officially endorsed support for this back in April 2023.
In the face of the increasingly ugly public debate unfolding around the referendum, National Vice President Dr Grahame Elder has written an incredibly thoughtful piece on the Voice, in part to organise his own thoughts on the issue, and in doing so has embraced the one thing that is sorely missing from the current public discussion, and that is nuance.
Grahame very kindly agreed to read his piece for the podcast, because we felt it deserved a much wider audience than just within the party. As always, the purpose of the podcast is to provide commentary and engage with the political discourse, and in that vein these are Grahame’s thoughts, and Grahame’s contribution to what is becoming a distressingly heated debate.
Show Notes
Our official policy platform on standing with First Nations people
Our position on The Voice
Commentary on the ‘no’ campaign’s approach and untruths
The official webpage of the ‘Yes’ campaign
The official webpage of the Uluru Statement from the Heart